I am stalking this forums for weeks now in search to find cans that would best cover my needs. Until now I was pretty convinced that I would buy the AKG K702 (they have good price and good reviews) but suddenly a kind of pre-buyers remorse took hold of me.

My situation. Most of the time I listen to music on my office PC in form of MP3s, some FLACs and on youtube.

I used regular Samsung IEs and was happy with them. Then my colleague bought the ATH-M50s, let me listen to them and I was lost. Suddenly my IEs didn't sound good anymore. I didn't want to spend such an amount for cans so I bought the Superlux HD681B because it had good reviews (and I wanted balanced cans) and was cheap. It was a huge step up from the IEs but the satisfaction didn't last long. Nowadays I always feel that I would enjoy music much more with something more "higher level" and am ready to raise funds for that.

So first thing I decided to order the Dragonfly as it seemed to be a good value and also balanced. Next step would be buying some decent cans. I was almost convinced that the K702s are the one for me. Great sound + good price = win. But now I have little doubts.

K702s are supposed to be very revealing. And that is what scares me. With MP3s, youtube and handful of FLACs being my only way to listen to music at work I am afraid that the k702s wouldn't be the most enjoyable choice. And also maybe for my PC + Dragonfly combo they could be overkill.

As for the music, my taste is very broad. Classic, opera, jazz, rock, trance, dnb... anything. Because of this I think balanced cans would be best (I can be convinced that I'm wrong). One thing is sure - it doesn't need to be bass heavy.

So please help me find a good cans that I would be happy to spend around €200 - €300 on them (maybe less if it's overkill for my pc). Or am I good to go with the K702s?

K702s are supposed to be very revealing. And that is what scares me. With MP3s, youtube and handful of FLACs being my only way to listen to music at work I am afraid that the k702s wouldn't be the most enjoyable choice. And also maybe for my PC + Dragonfly combo they could be overkill.

I don't entirely buy into that "revealing headphones are bad for poor source" philosophy. Certainly, if a recording is sibilant, it might bring that out more with the detail that the AKG K70x series provides. But what happens more often is not so much that that resolving headphones makes lower bit rate recordings sound bad, but that it brings out the best in very good recordings. So YouTube videos or low bit rate mp3s would probably sound better than they do right now to you, but they will be contrasted with how better source material sounds fantastic. So it can encourage you to be pickier about recordings in the same way that if you have fresh pineapple in Hawaii regularly you might not be so excited about canned pineapple anymore, but it doesn't necessarily make the poorer source recording sound bad as much as people make it out to be.

As for mp3s, 256k or above can sound quite good with good headphones. Just the lossless might be a little better.

I was considering HD600s as well but they are by about 1/3 more expensive than K702s. And from what I've read the sound quality should not be apart by that margin. If it is however I am ready to pay the premium.

One more thing concerns me. Are open cans good for open space office? Is there a closed alternative to HD600?

The Superlux are semi-open, and if you have no problems with them open headphones might be okay too. The superluxes do isolate a little bit, though not much and are almost like open headphones.

I agree. If you already tried the Superlux, then you probably have some sense of this. Another test is just to take any old pair of headphones, turn it up to the volume you listen to, and then take them off and see if they sound too loud. An open headphone is not going to be any louder than any headphones will sound off your head at the same volume.

Well, but anyone can make that decision for themselves once they understand how much sound open headphones put out and how much of the environment they will hear. And it depends on one's office. I can close my door. Can't you?

So today I tried colleague's M50s for few hours. Compared to Superlux they are better in many ways but still don't like them completely. Too much bass for my taste and recessed mids. And maybe my ears are bigger than average but M50s were not fully covering them and after some time the M50s became uncomfortable. Comparing the sound directly with Superlux I realized that I hate Superlux's sibilance and highs. After today's session hearing cymbals on them is almost unbearable. I definitely need something better. I was also made aware of the inward sound leakage of Superlux. Compared to M50s it became quite clear. So for my office I will need closed cans. Thanks for pointing me in that direction. Also changed the thread title accordingly. My search now begins anew but hopefully I will find something that will suit me.

So do you know any closed cans that are bigger than M50s, don't have that much bass and have better mids?